While googling Sibelius and The Tempest I found
reference to an extraordinary event broadcast on the BBC Third
Programme on 29 December 1949. This was a 135 minute radio adaptation
of The Tempest arranged by Dennis Arundell with Sibelius’s
incidental music performed by the BBC Opera Chorus and Orchestra
conducted by Stanford Robinson. It had James McKechnie as Prospero
and Gabrielle Blunt as Miranda. Other more familiar names were
David Kossoff, Molly Rankin and Carleton Hobbs as Gonzalo. I
wonder if a recording survives anywhere.

That’s an aside really. This Sibelius anthology comes from one
of Finland’s elder statesmen conductors, Okko Kamu. Despite
achieving greatness early on as a DG-supported protégée of Karajan
who recorded Sibelius’s first
three symphonies as a complement to Karajan’s last four
Kamu has not had a high profile. He has taken a quieter route
than his countryman, the much loved and now ailing Paavo Berglund.
Note must also be made for additional and brilliant interpretations
of the Lemminkainen Legends, Karelia Suite, The
Bard and En Saga – all now on Eloquence.

One wonder what prompted this project – not that it lacks virtues.
Bis have just completed their exhaustive 13 volume Sibelius
Edition which includes The Tempest music in full in the
version conducted by Vänskä back in 1992 with the
same orchestra – originally issued on BIS-CD-581. The same box
(volume 5) also includes Neeme Järvi conducting the Prelude
and the two suites in 1990 – originally issued with the Cassazione,
Preludio and Tiera on BIS-CD-448. Kamu is no stranger
to the full 40 cue cycle rather than the 20 tracks we have here.
In fact Kamu made a famous broadcast of the complete sequence
back in 1972. This was part of a European Broadcasting Union
relay with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
The soloists were Usko Vitainen and the incomparable Taru Valjakka
who recorded Luonnotar so luminously with Berglund for
EMI.
What we have on this disc is valuable for some of us as a reminder
of that now long distant radio event but also as it preserves
Kamu’s vision of this episodic and challenging music. His Prelude
is notable for its implacably calm finale. The Humoreske
is bouncily airborne. The Caliban Song looks back
to the music for Belshazzar’s Feast. Intrada recalls
the dark dissonances at the start of Prokofiev’s Romeo and
Juliet. Sibelius’s Prospero seems to reference Handel.
At several points the links with Tchaikosky’s ballet music are
underlined yet the flavouring is unmistakably Nordic. I have
yet to hear anyone trounce Beecham in these miniatures but certainly
Kamu comes close and this silver pure recording certainly compares
well with Beecham’s somewhat tired analogue (Sony).
There’s a gentle The Bard with some satisfyingly growling
brass at the fleetingly assertive climax but except in recording
terms this is on a par with the analogue recording of the work
that he made in the 1970s for DG. The Tapiola is a cut
above – as a work it can seem flat-footed. This is not the case
here. Incidents are touched in with the most finely flecked
skill and the sickle-edged vortex of a gale evoked by the keen-bladed
violins is memorable. This is not the equal of the extraordinary
but ancient Van Beinum version on Eloquence
but it is a far from inconsiderable reading and the cutting
edge recording accentuates its merits. The annotations are by
Andrew Barnett. Rob Barnett

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